Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) took the yellow jersey in the Tour de France Femmes 2025 with an impressive victory on the Col de la Madeleine. The Frenchwoman won by 1:45 minutes ahead of Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance - Soudal Team). Demi Vollering (FDJ - Suez) and Kasia Niewiadoma (CANYON//SRAM zondacrypto) finished more than three minutes behind.

The tour is not over yet. Two more 1st category mountains and an HC climb await on the final day. However, it is not a mountain finish. And so the question arises as to where the new leader in the overall standings could still lose so much time to prevent the first French overall victory in the new edition of the Tour de France Femmes.

Ferrand-Prévot was by far the strongest on the 18-kilometre final climb of stage 8 up to Madeleine. On the almost 100 kilometres beforehand, which started in Chambéry and began with a category 1 climb, she was rarely seen, as was the case throughout the Tour. When Gigante broke up the group of favourites with an attack eleven kilometres from the finish, the 33-year-old was quickly on the Australian's rear wheel. While the duo initially rode together for part of the route, Gigante was soon no longer able to follow. Little by little, Ferrand-Prévot overtook the remaining parts of the breakaway group. She then rode the last five kilometres at the front of the race as a soloist.

Le Court and van der Breggen slip out of the top 10

Gigante also made short work of the breakaway riders. But ultimately also with Vollering and Niewiadoma, who had both started the stage race as top favourites for overall victory, but were unable to keep up with the two women at the front on the Madeleine. Both also had to let Gigante pass them in the overall standings. The 24-year-old is now 2:37 minutes behind Ferrand-Prévot, but 41 seconds ahead of Vollering in third place. Vollering, for her part, was able to distance herself from last year's winner by 23 seconds with an attack under the devil's cloth and thus overtake the Polish rider, who is now only fourth in the GC.

As expected, Kimberly Le Court (AG Insurance - Soudal Team) had no chance of keeping up with the best climbers on the Madeleine. In the end, she lost over nine minutes and slipped out of the top 10 in the overall standings. However, she had also done valuable work for Gigante in preparation for her attack. Things went similarly badly for Anna van der Breggen (Team SD Worx - Protime), who reached the day's finish at the same time as Le Court and thus also lost her leading position in the classification.

Ferrand-Prévot: "Wanted to extend my lead as far as possible for tomorrow"

By the time this duo reached the finish line, the winner was able to give interviews again. "The last few kilometres hurt a lot, but I wanted to extend my lead for tomorrow as much as possible," said Ferrand-Prévot, who was already road world champion in 2014, but then concentrated more and more on mountain biking and only made her comeback on asphalt at the start of this season after five years of complete abstinence from road racing. "I wanted to enjoy it too, but it wasn't over before the finish line and I still had to give it my all. Hopefully we can finish it properly tomorrow."

However, it would take an extreme collapse by the Frenchwoman or a risky, desperate attack by her rivals to shake the yellow jersey from its wearer's shoulders. The other classifications also seem to have already been awarded. Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx - Protime) can only lose Green if she doesn't reach the finish. Elise Chabbey's (FDJ - Suez) 16-point lead in the mountains jersey is also a very solid cushion. Nienke Vinke (Team Picnic PostNL) seems to have won the battle for the white jersey. She turned a 21-second lead over Julie Bego (Cofidis Women Team) into almost nine minutes.

Tour de France Femmes 2025 - Results of stage 8

>> Tour de France Femmes 2025: Route and stages of the women's Tour de France

>> Tour de France Femmes 2025: All the teams' line-ups

>> The TOUR Tech briefing on stage 8 of the Tour de France Femmes 2025

>> Lichtenberg's preview of stage 8: Showdown at Madeleine?

>> Squiban goes one better and also wins the 7th stage

How the 8th stage of the Tour de France Femmes 2025 went

Not only did the Col de Madeleine await at the end of the day: it was uphill from kilometre 0. The first 13.2 kilometres of the stage led uphill to the Col de Plainpalais (1st category). The group that organised itself immediately after the start also included many female climbers. The winner of the two previous days, Maeva Squiban (UAE Team ADQ), was there again, as was Elise Chabbey (FDJ - Suez) in the mountain jersey. Her team-mate Evita Muzic was the best-placed rider, just 1:35 minutes behind in ninth place. Franziska Koch (Team Picnic PostNL) was also part of the group, which was up to 20 riders strong.

Chabbey secured the first mountain points of the day ahead of Squiban, while the group built up a lead of up to four minutes. Canyon and SD Worx in particular were under pressure, while Vollering was able to sit back and relax. On a descent after around 50 kilometres, Le Court made a mistake and lost contact with the main group. Ferrand-Prevot was also lost somewhere on the descent, which meant that the pace was temporarily pushed up extremely. Nevertheless, the two riders managed to get back on the road, which meant that the ride fell asleep again. There were still 47 kilometres to go.

Van der Breggen beaten early, Gigante attacks first

Meanwhile, the leading group moved at a constant pace. At the Côte de Saint-Georges-d'Hurtières (2nd category), their lead was four minutes. Chabbey once again took the points ahead of Squiban. By the time they reached the foot of the Madeleine, however, there were less than two minutes left of their lead over the field.

In the first kilometres of the HC climb, the leading group dwindled to four women. In addition to Muzic, Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck), Niamh Fisher-Black (Lidl-Trek) and Magdeleine Vallieres (EF Education-Oatly) were left. But the group of favourites was also tidied up. Surprisingly quickly, van der Breggen had to let go.

With 13 kilometres to go, only Fisher-Black and Kastelijn remained at the front. Behind them, Le Court had already been working for Gigante for some time. When the woman in yellow went out 11.6 kilometres, the Australian attacked. Only Rooijakkers was able to follow at first, but Ferrand-Prévot was also able to catch up relatively quickly.

Ferrand-Prévot rides the last five kilometres solo

Shortly afterwards Ferrand-Prévot and Gigante were alone, with Niewiadoma and Pauliena Rooijaakers (Fenix-Deceuninck) behind them. Vollering rode one group further back. Eight kilometres before the finish, the peloton had split further apart. Ferrand-Prévot had shaken off Gigante, Niewiadoma Rooijakkers. However, Ferrand-Prévot was unstoppable. 1000 metres later she had docked at the front.

The Frenchwoman then completed the last five kilometres as a soloist. Gigante also rode at her own pace behind Niewiadoma, Vollering, Rooijakkers and Cédrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly). However, the group effort did not last long. Around the last kilometre, the women attacked each other. Vollering had the best finish. She caught up with Kastelijn from the former leading group, but Fisher-Black was unable to catch her.

Damper for Niewiadoma

And certainly not Gigante. She crossed the finish line 1:45 minutes after the winner, half a minute behind Fisher-Black, who came third on the day. Vollering was 3:03 minutes behind Ferrand-Prévot. However, the Dutchwoman was still able to shake off Niewiadoma. The Polish rider came in 23 seconds later, but also had to give way to her compatriot Dominika Wlodarczyk (UAE Team ADQ) and Kerbaol. Rooijakkers was penalised another twelve seconds.

Le Court's yellow jersey finished much later together with van der Breggen. Both finished more than nine minutes behind the leader and even dropped out of the top 10 in the overall standings.